


No Dragons to Slay

by Nillegible



Series: Shikadai/Boruto works [3]
Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
Genre: AU Where Momoshiki doesn't attack at the Chuunin Exams, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 07:10:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15881118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nillegible/pseuds/Nillegible
Summary: Imagine, for a moment, that Otsutsuki Momoshiki does not attack at Boruto's Chuunin exams. They don't need to rescue the Nanadaime and Sasuke doesn't need to use Boruto as a secret weapon. It isn't the partial destruction of Konoha and a new threat that lingers in everyone's minds, but that lying, cheating, son of the Seventh Hokage who had disgraced Konoha in front of its allies.Atonement is so much harder to achieve when there are no dragons to slay. An AU where Boruto has to take the slow path to redemption; involving apologies, locked doors, and self-doubt.





	No Dragons to Slay

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! My third Shikadai/Boruto story in two days, making me the writer of more than 50% of the ShikaBoru stories currently on AO3. I know, it breaks my heart too. 
> 
> That aside, this is a much less self-indulgent, cliched story than the other two in this series. It will concentrate quite a bit on what would have happened if they had to actually talk themselves out of the mess they made, instead of getting to battle a super-powered villain which magically resolves everything.

“I already figured you’d resort to your shadow clones…so I practiced a counter strategy with my dad,” he says. “So anyway, I wish you would give up graciously.”

Shikadai smiles then, proud, green eyes gleaming. Boruto’s own father was watching him, really _watching,_ for the first time in forever. His idiot father was seated with the other Hokage, and for once his eyes didn’t pass over him, weren’t cloudy with the weight of a village and his work.

His father was _looking_ at him, and Boruto was losing. His breath catches in his throat.

He stares down his oldest of friends for a moment, an eternally long moment as he clenches his teeth and weighs his options. He weighs ‘ _Let’s have a fair match with no hard feelings!’_ against ‘ _I practiced a counter strategy with my dad’_ and the injustice of it twists deep inside. He activates the Scientific Ninja Tool.

Shikadai didn’t have to win, he had a father who helped him train, played Shogi with him, and was present for dinner. Uncle Shikamaru would be disappointed, but he’d still be _around._ If Boruto failed here, Naruto’s eyes would just pass over him again.

The extra Kage Bunshin is enough to release Boruto and his other four clones, and they surround Shikadai instantly.

Shikadai raises his hands in defeat. “I lose,” he says, looking a little sheepish. The swell of victory is a heady feeling, as the arena erupts with applause. He deserves this. The small smile on his father’s face is worth the niggling feeling of doubt. The edge that the Kote gives him can only compensate for the advantages Shikadai had been allowed, he reasons.

And what did it matter? His father was smiling.

(He doesn’t meet Shikadai’s olive eyes.)

 

Only it does matter, it seems, because his father frowns, and grabs his wrist. The gauntlet flashes mockingly from his hand to allow every person in the arena to witness Boruto’s shame.

The third time Naruto tugs him away, (the next match has to start, Boruto, I will not say it again) he lets his father lead him away with a bandaged hand over his shoulder.

 

Katasuke appears before they can leave, and he talks about how he had found the ideal testing site in the Chuunin exams, and the ideal test subject, in Boruto. Had he always been so manic? Boruto had risked his _life_ to help him recover his work when it had been stolen, didn't he care?

His father's hand tightens on his shoulder and he asks Katasuke to stand down. He sounds like a Hokage, not like his ridiculous old man, but it still takes two armed guards arresting Katasuke to finally stop him and his assistant, who had been filming and broadcasting the events. 

The yelling, about cheating and foul play has petered out, swallowed up by laughter. So the Hokage's son was weak _and_ a fool?  _Apparently I am,_ realizes Boruto with soul-crushing clarity. 

Boruto did this…all of this, because his father's eyes would finally be on him.  This is isn't what he meant him to see. 

Naruto leads him all the way to the locker rooms before he steps back. "Boruto. Don't. It's okay.  We’ll talk later." Footsteps of too many people sound outside as his dad backs away from him, accompanied by familiar voices. Mom? Himawari? Chocho? Boruto turns and runs all the way home. He can't face any of them right now.

* * *

 

Boruto vanishes right after the semi-final match with him. The Hokage grabs his wrist and raises it high and he realizes instantly what had happened.  He screams at his father, there in the middle of the stadium, before the other Kage and assembled Shinobi from five countries. Shikadai’s own dad and Uncle Gaara are frowning deeply. This isn’t the sort of thing a village wants to show it’s rivals, allies or otherwise.

The Nanadaime leads Boruto away, with a hand on one shoulder. Boruto looks shocked, clearly not expecting Katasuke’s cruelty. The Hokage waves a hand to order them to continue as he directs his son from the arena.

And Shikadai doesn’t see him again.

He tries to visit once, after Mitsuki and Sarada report that Boruto had refused to meet with them. Denki, Iwabe, and Metal had been turned away, too. When he turns up at his house, Himawari opens the door. She tells him that Boruto’s sleeping over at a friend’s house to complete an assignment. He doesn’t try again.

Dad tells him, when he asks, that Boruto was attending the academy again. This time entering the non-shinobi-track. He's actually doing well there he says slowly. He sounds unsure if that would be comforting or not. Shikadai isn't sure either.

Shikadai is furious with him, _hates him_ , hates that he'd lied, cheated, brought their village so low before the eyes of others. His father wasn't the Nanadaime, but he still worked so hard for Konoha. He hates that they were all shamed by Boruto's actions.

He hates that Boruto had done something so _stupid._ What had been thinking?

And he hates that he’s just gone now. Shunning the contact of his friends, presumably to start a new life like none of them mattered at all. Like _Shikadai_ doesn’t matter at all.

 

The days pass and nothing much changes. The genin teams don’t have to be rearranged as Sarada and Mitsuki both made Chuunin, and Shikadai stays with his team in spite of being promoted as well. Boruto stays gone, none of them get more than a glimpse of him as he walks around the village, the flashy boy clearly putting in the effort to avoid the places the genin (and newly promoted chuunin) frequented.

“I don’t understand at all,” says Mitsuki to Sarada once, looking contemplative. Shikadai has taken to hanging out with them when Inojin and Chocho have training without him. “I thought Lord Seventh was supposed to be very forgiving. Why wouldn’t he forgive Boruto?”

Watching Mitsuki try to understand his world sans Boruto was more than a little sad. It makes Shikadai angry, but Mitsuki just seems lost. It’s pitiful enough for Shikadai to interrupt Sarada’s, “I asked my mother but she said it is not our place-” with, “Do you remember that Lord Sixth said that Boruto would be a liability as a ninja? I think they were already watching him, and this was the last straw.”

“Sumire tried to destroy all of Konoha, and she’s still a ninja,” he says. Shikadai leans back against the trunk of the tree. Ryogi too had been released from prison. He was planning to leave fire country, but he had made it clear that it was his own choice to leave, and that the Hokage had offered to let him become a Konoha-nin. Shikadai could see why Mitsuki thought Boruto’s punishment was unfair.

“I think it’s because she did a terrible thing, but she was raised that way. She didn’t have a choice. And she repented,” says Sarada. What that idiot did was to cheat at the Chuunin exams; he showed everyone that he doesn’t respect Konoha-nin, or his father, or the other Hidden Villages’ shinobi at all. So he can’t be a ninja.”

They have nothing to say to that.

“Although, I think the Mizukage could have supported him at least. Boruto helped Mist put down a rebellion and save his successor’s life,” she says. If it hadn’t been for

A glance at Mitsuki shows that he’s still confused. “Maybe we should just ask the Hokage,” Shikadai says. It would be a pain to actually find the Hokage (the only person in the village more elusive than Boruto, except in the man’s defense, he was actually insanely busy), but it might help.

“Yes,” says Mitsuki.

Shikadai is a little bit disgusted with himself for even planning to join in… but he wants to know the official reason. He had thought the answers would come with time, that Boruto would apologize and things would go back to normal. Instead, everything has only been getting worse.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you have a moment; I'd love to know what you think of this story.


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